Runes
by Update Bug
Summary: Rune master, one with the ability to ward of evil, heal the sick and heighten magic. Harry, along with his family, were trained to be weapons, the final defence against voldemort's attacks. the war is over and just as things are returning to normal another psychopath decides he wants to rule the world. Typical. so far no slash planned.
1. Chapter 1

Rune

Chapter one

**to my loyal readers it is with great regret that I announce that today, I, Update bug have sunk to one of the lowest forms of depravity from which there is no return... I have written (Pause for effect) a crossover!**

**there is no coming back from this. I can't even pretend that I'm sticking to the cannon of either world because I have melded the two together, that's right I AM THE GOD OF THIS NEW WORLD which I stole from the original creators and shamefully twisted to meet my own ends. **

**Enjoy. **

* * *

Hagal's Aett

Sowilo: letter: S

Meaning: sun

Associations: guidance, wholeness, awareness, hope, goals achieved, victory, honour

Appearance: lightning bolt

* * *

The house was largely silent. Just seconds before it had been filled with the sounds of frantic shouting and a sickly green light. Now though it was quiet, the only sound loud and echoing in the quiet of the house.

It was the sound of footsteps, fast and heavy, charging up the stairs. The door slammed open and shut as the woman burst into the room. It's a nursery; in one corner of the room there stands a cot. It is to this the woman runs, diving forward and scooping up the dark haired child in the cot. The woman spins in a circle, child in her arms only to freeze. Whatever she was expecting didn't happen.

The woman is crying now, tears running down her face as she places the child back in the cot, smoothing down his messy hair and kissing him on the forehead. The child is awake now, staring up at his mother with startling green eyes. The woman turns, facing the door just as it burst open. A man stood there. For a second the two look at each other, the man amused, the woman fearful.

It is the woman who speaks first, desperation in every word, "Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry."

"Stand aside, you silly girl…stand aside now." The man's voice was high and cold, it held no pity.

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead…not Harry…have mercy."

The man it seemed had grown tired of this, there was a jerk to the stick he held in his hand and a shouted word and the woman fell to the floor in a flash of green light. Stepping over her cooling body the man moved until he stood directly over the crib, looking down at the child within. The boy was crying, reaching out its hands towards its mother and calling for her, too young to know that she could not hear.

The man raised his wand again, pointing it directly at the child, with another jerk and the repetition of his earlier words a green light once again appeared, shooting towards the child. The man's triumphant laughter lasted for only a second as the light hit the child, bouncing off him and heading back towards the man.

The man fell, a look of shock on a face that soon crumbles to dust, sagging and collapsing as a black mist rises from it, spiralling upwards and heading out into the cool night air. If you looked very carefully you could say that you had seen a face in the shadows, but only for a moment before they faded from sight.

Inside the house the baby cried, unheard. As the child sat there something strange started to happen. On the child's forehead a mark appeared, it glowed red for a moment before fading slightly, leaving behind a jagged red line.

A line that, when others finally arrived at the house to find the child, they would mistake for a simple scar.

A line in the shape of a lightning bolt.

* * *

Ronald Weasley was not amused.

He was in particular very annoyed about the fact that everyone found it quite so amusing and so was making it a point to not talk to them until they apologised. This was a cause that would be helped greatly if people would stop catching sight of his appearance and bursting into tears of laughter all over again.

The day had started out normally. For once Ron had been one of the first awake and so had climbed out of bed and started his usually morning mission to find the coffee. This normally wouldn't have been a problem, however as he had trudged along the landing he had failed to notice Crookshanks lying across the top of the stairs. He had tripped and gone flying down the stairs, landing with a loud crash and instantly waking everyone else in the house.

That, however, wasn't the main problem. The main problem was that the twins, along with the rest of the family had been given keys to the house and access to the floo. It appeared that at some time during the night the twins had taken advantage of that, setting up an elaborate prank across the stairs that was designed to be triggered the moment someone passed it.

During the war he, along with several others had developed something of a…sensitivity…towards magic. This was very useful to them but annoyed the hell out of the twins who kept trying to prank them.

Had Ron been walking down the stairs he would have disabled it however as he was to busy tumbling down and trying not to break his neck he hadn't noticed.

This led to the current situation.

Ron was sitting there, at the kitchen table, in a baby blue dress. His eyelids were weighed down by an unnecessary amount of blue eye shadow and his lips were bright red. Dark pink blush was painted in large circles on his cheeks, put on so heavily that it almost hid the scar on his left cheek.

He hadn't even gotten his coffee.

At the table sat Harry and Hermione, who had come running down in a panic hearing his disgusted yell and then both collapsed into a chair so that they could hold their sides and try to breathe.

Ginny was leaning on the doorframe, literally crying as she looked at him. Neville stood behind her, clutching her shoulders to keep her upright and doing the best out of all of them to pretend he didn't find the situation amusing. Despite this he was doing terribly. While he wasn't laughing outright he would manage to get himself under control before meeting someone's eye and letting the ear splitting grin creep back across his face.

Ron huffed in annoyance and folded his arms-trying to ignore how hard the tight dress made it- "Shove off" he muttered, trying to avoid eye contact, stretching past Harry's hysterical form to reach for the coffee machine. He had just lifted it when Ginny's gasp stopped him in his tracks. The coffee pot fell to the floor and shattered as his arm spasmed.

The scar on his face glowed an eerie red, showing beyond the make up as a weird M shaped line. Around the room the same thing was happening to the other people as one by one their own scars lit up.

The sideways hourglass on Ginny's right heel.

The crooked Z on Neville's right shoulder.

The R on the middle of Hermione's upper right arm.

The lightning bolt on Harry's forehead.

The light filled the kitchen, seen by no one. With the light had come flashes of images and colour, spinning past so rapidly that none of them could make out what they were, or what they meant. Ron thought he caught a glimpse of a Hammer, while all Neville saw was flames. Ginny made out tree's and clouds and was given the impression on flying but Hermione saw only the American flag. Harry saw only a colour, a light swirling blue that whispered with a voice similar to those from the veil.

Then it was over.

Ron blinked rapidly at the after images and shook his head, clumsily climbing to his feet. He hadn't even noticed that he had fallen to the floor.

"Everyone okay?" he rasped, voice faint from what had just happened. Slowly the others stared to pull themselves up. Hermione rubbing a bump from where she had hit her head on the way to the floor. "I'm good" she muttered, grimacing slightly-though it wasn't from pain. Hermione hated the visions with a passion. She hated anything that she could not explain.

"So…anyone know what the hell that was supposed to mean?" Ginny asked, pulling herself up with a scowl, glaring at the mark on her foot as if it had just declared pigeons the national bird.

"Germany." The new voice came from the door way. Luna stood there, she had been in the garden when the visions had come and a box filled with feathers hung, unnoticed, from her hand. Her eyes were, for one, steadily focused on reality. "We have to go to Germany." As if it knew what they were saying the crooked F in the hollow of her throat flashed once, as if in agreement.

It was then that Ron remembered just why he hadn't actually minded the teasing that much, why most of his anger had been faked.

The war had ended six months ago and things had seemed to be finally returning to normal.

Xxx

They hadn't meant to become child soldiers. In the beginning they didn't even realise that that was what they were. In the beginning it was necessary. The stone was in danger. Ginny was in trouble. Sirius needed help. They considered themselves lucky, laughed at the fact that they had survived and moved on. It wasn't until the start of sixth year that it changed.

The ministry had been…impressed by their actions. They had been capable of breaking into the Ministry and holding off several full grown death eaters until help arrived. There were many adults who couldn't say as much and these were children.

It got certain people interested.

It got certain people thinking.

If they could do this much, on their own, without any formal training then what could they do with the training.

In most cases it wouldn't have even been considered. They were children; the youngest of them was only fourteen. It was immoral, disgusting, and despicable to train children to fight in a war when most the adults couldn't or wouldn't fight.

But it was also war and people were scared.

They were each approached individually by an unspeakable and then, the six of them, were trained to fight. They were trained how to identify certain things and get away with certain things. They were taught how to fight with a wand and without. They were taught how to see the enemy as an object that needed to be removed and to lie and cheat and kill.

Then, in the end, they were put onto the battlefield.

Each of them had their own speciality, each of them had something that they were best at and in the end it resulted in one thing, Voldemort's death.

So they left, went away to lick their wounds and recover. Return to being normal. To forget the instinct that had been forced into them that made them check for an exit before they entered a room. Forget the habit they had of checking everyone for weapons before letting down their guard. Forget the screams and tears of the people around them as the castle was attacked and, despite their training, they can't be everywhere, they can't save everyone.

And just when they were finally returning to normal, just when they could go a couple of nights in a row without someone getting a nightmare, just when they had relaxed enough to fall for one of Fred and George's jokes…another megalomaniac decides to take over the world.

Xxx

Luna frowned down at the piece of wire in her hand, twisting it through a hoop that was attached to purple stone. Carved into the stone and then filled with silver was the rune Mannaz, a sideways hourglass with two lines descending from it. Luna grinned as she tied the end of the wire to a clasp, finishing the necklace.

A knock on the door disturbed her and she looked up as Hermione walked in, bag slung over her shoulder. The girl raised one eyebrow as she looked around the room. "Aren't you done yet?" she asked glancing at Luna's empty bag. "You do realise that we'll miss the plane if we leave much later right?"

"We won't miss the plane." Luna said with absolute certainty, "We'll be in the right place at the right time. I finished anyway." She flicked a wand at the bag and several clothes and items flew from their places around the room and folded themselves into the bag. A black mask with a crude white symbol painted on it followed at a much slower pace and laid itself on top of the bag. Onto all this Luna placed the necklace that she had been working on and zipped the bag shut.

"Ready!" She smiled up at Hermione.

The other girl sighed and gave a look of fond exasperation, "Shoes Luna."

"Oh."

Xxx

Harry was the last one downstairs and the entire group had collected in the hall. As usual Ron and Hermione were arguing.

"I still don't see why we have to go the Muggle way. It would be far quicker to get a portkey or floo."

Hermione frowned, "I've told you, we want to appear as innocent as possible, and sneaking into a country doesn't exactly help that."

"Oh please, like they'll care about that. From what we've heard from Luna they'd be suspicious of us if we showed up with a handwritten letter from the queen."

"Yes but there's no point in making things worse."

"So I have to sit on some Muggle flying thing that could fall down at any minute to make people slightly less suspicious of us?"

"Yes!"

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard and coming from you-"

Harry coughed and the two looked up to find they had an audience. Ron's ears went red and he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, next to him Ginny muttered the words "Sexual tension." Under her breath, only making it worse.

Harry looked up, grinning in amusement, "If you're quite done shall we go."

Miles away prince Loki Asguardian god had no idea just how badly his plans were about to go awry.

**I am continuing with my other story. **

**I apologise in advance for any mistakes or incorrect characterisation in the following story, I'm trying my best. **

**I am currently writting a diferent fanfiction as well as this one so updates might be slightly slow as I will most likely be alternating updates. **

**please reveiw.**

**also, I'm going to the Avengers movie tomorrow wooh (again)**


	2. Chapter 2

Runes

Chapter two

**oh my god I have reveiws, it's only been up two days! I only got seven on my other fic and that has nine chapters and has been out for a couple of months (For those reading that fic I'm halfway through the next chapter)**

**thank you for correcting my spelling, I was having an off day (That's the excuse and I'm sticking to it)**

**for those wondering there will be no Harry/Ginny in this fic, I'm not really a huge fan. there may be same sex couples if I can be bothered to write any romance in so if you're homophobic you should probably leave if that happens(No offence).**

**I am not that good at drawing, but a picture of Ron after the prank has been requested so if anyone wants to do that then feel free. **

**thank you to all who have read this far and not skipped to the story, have a discalaimer-I own nothing.**

* * *

Freyr's Aett

Ansuz: letter A

Meaning: God, chieftain, reference to the god Odin.

Associations: mind, voice within, signals, inspiration, true vision, self-knowledge.

Appearance: crooked F

* * *

The girl was young-too young to witness what was about to happen and yet old enough that she would understand what she was witnessing.

Her father was away. He had gone on a short trip to Sweden for the family newspaper, he was trying to track down the feeding grounds of the Crumple horned Snorlack. So far he had not been successful but he fire called every day with news of his findings and tales of his adventures.

The entire family had always had something of a reputation of being…Odd. The father in particular, although the daughter, despite her young age, seemed to be well on her way to following in his footsteps.

Both the father and daughter saw things that no one else did. They saw creatures that others would forever deny the existence of and drew connections that would-to anyone else- be insanity. They are not insane, the way they look at the world allows them to see things that have and are happening that others do not see. It allows them to see events that have yet to pass and make sense of things that-to others- would be incomprehensible.

The mother does not see these things. She believes in them but only because she trusts her husband and her child. She trusts in their sight. Instead the mother creates. She tries to show the world that her family are not insane by creating spells that will allow others to see what her family sees.

She has not been successful.

Today she will try again.

The woman is foolish, her attempts have become more successful, the spell has become more complex but the last time she thought she saw, just for a second, one of the creatures that her husband had described to her.

She stands in a circle made of runes and hastily scratched symbols, the haste would be her downfall, she wrote the sequence out wrong.

The last thing she sees as she raises the wand is her daughter's face peering around the door before everything is consumed in flames.

Her daughter is only nine.

The accident was discovered by a friend of the family. A wizarding family nearby had a daughter the same age, they would bring the children round to play together.

When the family arrived it was to find the house in ruins, flames still flickering merrily around the edges. In the centre of this chaos they found the child hovering within a shimmering ball that was later described as one of the most controlled cases of accidental magic ever seen.

And if they later found a curious scar, shaped like a crooked F, in the hollow of her throat well, she's only a child; it's not surprising that she would have been unable to shield herself from everything.

* * *

Germany was nice. So far.

The event that Hermione and Neville had snuck into was also nice. It was a classy place, a large hall with violins and waiters. In the middle there was a table, that Hermione wasn't too keen on, it was shaped rather too much like an alter for her tastes.

The evening was going quite well though. Neville was dressed in a suit and Hermione wore an elegant dress that started out a pale pink but darkened as it fell, ending up swaying around her feet in a dark purple. The two had been chosen to do this due to being the two of the group that would stand out the least, they had runes in the least visible places and, while they still drew attention they were better and fitting in with the crowd- Hermione, by getting into conversations with the other guest in near fluent German and Neville with his well-honed ability to fade into the background.

Around the room, wearing various versions of the disillusionment charm were the rest of the gang, subtly keeping an eye out for any trouble were the rest of the gang.

Trouble like that dark haired man knocking one of the guests out with a staff.

Harry raised his wand and started forwards only to be stopped by a hand on his arm, it was Luna.

"Not yet."

"What?" he looked down at her, she looked back, eyes steady and hard. Eventually he lowered his arm. "Why not?"

"We can't be discovered."

"Why?"

"Bad things will happen." With that Luna let go of his arm and drifted after the crowd that was fleeing the hall, the man, now dressed in a green cloak and a golden helmet- complete with antlers of all things- followed.

In moments the hall was empty, the witches and wizards following. As he left Harry waved at Ginny, calling her over to him.

"Yes?" she asked, pulling her red hair up into a knot as she spoke.

"Can you heal them?" Harry jerked his head towards the two unconscious men.

"What, you think I'm putting my hair up just to look pretty?" she scoffed, "Men."

"Hey!"

Xxx

Outside it wasn't going much better.

The crazy guy had (after crowding all the people into a group) started to give a long speech that was something along the lines of blah, blah, blah…kneel…blah, blah, blah…subjugation… blah, blah, blah…king. To be honest Ron wasn't really paying that much attention. In his experience the bad guy always went off on a rant and paying attention to them had only ever bought him a headache.

Then a man stood up.

About five invisible protego charms wrapped around the man at the same time, it was rather fortunate for them that the new guy arrived.

Xxx

"The last time I was in Germany and I saw a man standing above everyone else we had a disagreement." With that Captain America stalked forwards, glaring at the man.

Loki smiled and fired a bolt of blue energy towards the hero; The Captain deflected it off his shield and darted forwards, attempting to use it to hit Loki who blocked it with his sceptre. The hero backed off slightly as the two circled each other warily.

There was a flash that was followed by a loud clang as the Captain threw the shield, which bounced off Loki's armour and was flung across the street, landing near to where Neville stood.

The Captain lunged forward with a kick and reached out with a punch only for it to be caught with Loki's sceptre. Loki swung, hitting the Captain across the face and forcing him to his knees. Up above a plane hovered, hopelessly, unable to get a clear shot with the civilians darting around.

Loki smirked, pressing down on the Captain's neck with the butt of his sceptre, "Kneel." He hissed before freezing and snapping his head up. Harry and Ron were edging forwards, wands half raised as they tried to think of a way to help without giving themselves away. Loki's eyes skittered past Harry, hidden as he was beneath his cloak but they latched on to Ron, seeing through the glamors that kept him invisible to the others.

"Ehwaz." He breathed staring at the mark on his cheek. As Ron started in shock the man pinned to the ground leapt up yelling the words "Not today." As he punched Loki across the face.

The Asguardian barely felt the punch however he did feel it when a weed reached up and grabbed his leg. Loki lost balance and fell backwards, landing collapsed on some steps as a man in a red iron suit landed next to Captain America. Meer feet away Neville grinned, casually brushing the two runes that he had hastily drawn on the pavement off. Kenaz, Berkana and Laguz. Growth. Spring. Life.

"Make your move reindeer games." There was a whirring noise as a several small compartments opened out of the suit revealing several sets of missiles. Loki raised his hands in surrender, his own suit fading from his body to reveal relatively normal clothes.

"Good move."

Xxx

Harry cursed under his breath as the plane took off, diving for his bag. Hermione rolled her eyes and raised her wand sending a light purple spell after the ship. She looked around as the group stared at her.

"What? It's a tracking spell."

Ginny grinned, having arrived back at the group just in time to see the plane take off. "And where did you learn that?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Fourth year. I thought it might be useful for one of the tasks," She turned to Harry, "So…how are we going to follow that thing."

"How do you think." At his words Ron and Ginny's expressions light up, they hadn't flown properly since before the war.

Hermione and Neville did not look quite so pleased. "I hate flying." Hermione's face was glum, "I only packed these as a precaution." She added, sliding a small beaded bag off her wrist. They all carried a bag, it was something they had learnt during the war, there was always a risk that they would get separated and be left with nothing, so each of them carried a bag with some necessities, some food, some money, personal items and their uniforms.

Hermione however was the best at extension charms and feather light charms; she was also the most organised. As a result of this she was usually the one who carried the main bag, the bag that contained the extras-the items that might be needed if things went wrong or a mission extended for longer than it should. It was usually larger but she had shrunk it slightly so that it would not look out of place in the party.

Although, seeing what some of the people had turned up in she almost wished she hadn't bothered, she wouldn't really stand out that much against bright blue spandex.

Harry grabbed his Firebolt with enthusiasm that was matched by both Weasley's. Luna was calm and seemed to barely notice that she had been given something. Neville on the other hand looked terrified and was staring at the broom with a horrified look that he usually reserved for Hagrid's pets.

"You do realise that I haven't flown since flying lessons in first year right?"

Xxx

It was cold and dark and windy and, altogether Neville was incredibly uncomfortable. He squinted slightly and was able to make out the black blob that was the plane they were following. Glancing round he saw that, while the three Quiditch fans were swooping around like they couldn't plunge to their death at any moment Hermione was clutching on to the stick so hard that her knuckles had gone completely white. He glanced to his other side and froze, blinking rapidly. With his loss of control the broom wavered horribly for a moment before steadying again.

Somehow Luna had managed to get her hands on a Thestral.

He shuddered as it turned its head to look at him flinching away from its dead gaze.

With Luna it was always better not to ask.

That was the last thing he was able to think before the shockwave hit, pushing him backwards, just in time. A bolt of lightning had struck, almost in the centre of the group, scattering them in all directions.

A man flew out of the lightning, heading for the plane, he felt similar to the first man that they had encountered however he either so focussed on the plane that he didn't notice tem or he was unable to see through glamors as the other could. For whatever reason he didn't notice them.

Once Neville had regained control of his broom he spun round, frantically looking for his friends, only relaxing once he had caught sight of them.

They were all fine, none of them had been hit.

It was then that he turned his attention back onto the plane. Two figures were falling from it. Another two quickly followed.

"Shit!" he heard Ginny yelp as she and Harry tilted down into a dive, they all followed. Harry was fastest, taking the lead but even Neville, with his rather limited experience of flying could tell that they weren't going to get there in time. The fallers were too fast.

Xxx

The two figures collided with a force great enough to push one away, sending him flying to land in the woods.

Harry jumped of his broom when he was still a couple of feet above the ground, he landed heavily and collapsed to one knee for a moment before taking of running to where the two men had gone. Up on his rock Loki watched several figures land and run past. He smiled.

The Harry was just about to run into the clearing with the two men in when he was slammed into from behind, the force knocked into him and pushed him over when he landed on the ground with a loud sound of breaking twigs.

Xxx

In the clearing Stark frowned behind his mask and peered over at where the noise was coming from, seeing nothing he turned back.

"Oh yeah? Then don't take my stuff."

Xxx

Meer feet away Harry groaned and rolled onto his back, looking up at Hermione who was laying on top of him,

"Wha?" he managed to get out as she blushed and jumped to her feet

"We can't be seen. We don't know if they can see through the charm." She hissed urgently, "That plane was S.h.i.e.l.d, they track people like us. You can't let them see you."

"How do you know that?" he hissed back as he climbed to his feet.

At this point the others were all there; Ginny had gone as close as possible and was hiding behind a tree watching what was happening.

Harry joined her and started paying attention to what was going on, almost choking when the words "Doth mother know you weareth of her drapes?" reached him. Ron snickered as the words reached him and was rewarded by a hit on the head from Hermione.

"Wish we'd brought popcorn." Ginny muttered as the fight took off, "It's almost like one of those movies Hermione made us all go and see."

Hermione was about to reply when the blonde man raised his hand to throw his hammer at the metal man's back. She was cut off by Harry's cry of "Expelliarmus!"

The hammer was pulled from the man's hand however the strength of the spell sent it flying towards the caster, Harry.

Silently cursing him the group scattered, diving for cover behind other trees or, in Neville's case nearby rocks.

The iron man stared at the blonde, disbelief apparent even through the metal and mask, "What was that supposed to be?" he asked.

The blonde looked enraged for a second, holding out a hand and summoning the hammer back. Behind her tree Hermione sucked in a breath at the display of wandless magic, itching to get out there and ask questions or, at the very least, go find a library.

Thor raised the hammer to the sky and threw a bolt of lightning at Stark, it hit but the suit seemed to absorb it and he flung his own bolt of energy back at the God before flying forward and trying to hit him.

Thor grabbed hold of Stark's arms and tightened his grip, crushing parts of the suit. Harry was just stepping forward to help when a shield came out of nowhere, hitting both fighters.

"That's enough." A new voice yelled, one that Harry vaguely recognised from the earlier fight. He was moving round to get a better view when a hand clamped down on his arm he spun, wand raised to see Luna peering at him with an urgency that she rarely displayed.

"We need to get in the air."

The expression on her face was all the explanation that he needed and he motioned to the others while swinging a leg over his broom. He soared upwards, still making sure to stay out of sight.

From their view above the fight the six of them had a very good view of the god, Thor losing his temper and bringing down his hammer onto the shield of Captain America.

They also had a very good view of the resulting shockwave whipping out a good portion of the forest.

From his position next to Harry Ron looked down at the chaos and winced leaning over to mutter "We can only hope that they never meet the twins."

As one the group shuddered.

Back in England, at the same time, Fred and George sneezed.

**thank you for reading, be back soon. **


	3. Chapter 3

Runes

Chapter two

**Thank you for my Reveiws. I feel so loved. For anyone reading my other fanfic...it might take a while...I'm sorry! It's not my fault, Shinji is laughing at my inability to write him and it is very distracting. **

**p.s sorry for any bad characterisation. **

**p.p.s. I own nothing. **

* * *

Hagal's Aett

Eihwaz: letter EI

Meaning: yew tree

Associations: Stability, patience, perseverance, endurance, personal power, strength, initiation.

Appearance: crooked Z

* * *

The boy was a squib.

That was what everyone said at any rate.

Squib, useless, unnecessary, a disgrace to the family name.

Had he been anyone else, born into any other family, it wouldn't have mattered so much. But his family was of pure blood and he was the heir to the family. No one would ever accept a squib as the heir.

His parents had been strong, a good witch and wizard but they are gone. They died to save him and he repays them by being useless, being unable to ever live up to their names.

The family never say this, not directly, and definitely not to his face, but the boy knows. He knows how they think of him, knows what every sniff and sigh and pointed question means.

The boy knows he is useless.

So he shrinks back, takes up the least amount of time and attention that he can. Withering like a plant without water because in his family the water is acid and the plant is a weed.

Some members of the family are worse than others. One in particular is bad. His uncle. He doesn't want a squib in the family, doesn't believe that his family can produce squibs. So he tries to fix it.

His methods are…cruel.

One day they were almost fatal.

He was holding the boy out of the window. It was the third floor, the fall would kill him. The boy isn't struggling, he doesn't protest the treatment. He cries, silently, tears rolling up down his temple to get lost in his hair.

Then the uncle makes a mistake, he is distracted, he lets go.

The boy falls. He hits the ground hard and it is his shoulder and arm that take the brunt of the fall but he doesn't die. He bounces, all the way down the garden before he slows to a stop.

The family are thrilled.

They never mention the incident again and they never mention the peculiar scar that is later found on the boy's shoulder.

He nearly died.

His uncle buys him a toad, the family celebrate.

The boy returns to the shadows.

* * *

"I have a question, why are the hot guys always evil?"

Neville made a noise that was halfway between a whine and a laugh but it's covered by Harry's sudden coughing fit and Luna started giggling so hard she fell over, rolling away from the rest of the group

"You know I was thinking more along the lines of questions about what we were talking about." Hermione pointed out, looking like she couldn't decide between horrified or amused.

"Yeah, how do you know all this, about iron man and captain America and s.h.i.e.l.d? How come you always know everything?" Ron complained.

"I read, you should try it sometime."

Ron grinned widely and slung an arm across her shoulders, "Why would we need to do that when we've got you?"

Ginny grimaced and mimed gagging at the mushy moment, glancing around the ship.

They had followed the plane to a massive, giant honest to god flying ship. Ginny didn't know how it stayed up without magic but she was definitely not going to piss any of the muggles that could build this thing off.

They had landed and settled down on the ships roof Hermione had taken over and flapped around, casting various spells. Ginny didn't know exactly what she had done but the end result had been what was, essentially, a bubble. Ginny liked the bubble, she liked it a lot, that was because it created an area of warm, wind free, breathable space that the muggles couldn't see. She loved the bubble; it was a very useful bubble, particularly as they had been sitting there for a couple of hours.

The second they had set up camp (metaphorically, although Hermione had looked rather wistfully at her bag where the tent was packed) Hermione had started explaining about the people that they were following.

That had led to Ginny's question.

She didn't see why the question was such a big deal. The hot guys were always evil…or fictional…or both.

It is while she is considering this, and watching the rest of the group laugh as they tease her brother and Hermione, that the ship explodes.

Right where they're sitting.

When they had snuck onto the ship they had decided to set up camp in one of the most deserted parts of the ship (just in case). They had ended up in the area next to one of the engines.

It was, it appeared, a mistake.

Xxx

Harry flung up a shield the second he felt the ship lurch. He was just in time, flame and smoke hit the spell, breaking it and throwing Harry backwards. He hit a wall heavily and slumped over blinking as stars burst behind his eyes.

A hand stuck itself in front of his face, for a moment he stared at it before letting Ron pull him to his feet.

He looked round. Hermione and Ron were fine. Neville had a burn on his shoulder but it was a small wound and not dangerous. Ginny had a gash on her forehead but it was fixable. Luna was…missing.

His head snapped round again, taking everyone in. there was still no Luna.

There was however a gaping hole in the ship where she had been.

Harry pushed Ron out of the way and darted over, looking down, the only thing he could see was clouds.

A hand touched his arm gently and he spun around to see everyone else hovering uncertainly, waiting for him to speak. Green eyes hardened and he shook his head, grabbing his bag he pulled out a mask and fit it onto his face. "Get inside the ship. Split up and fan out. Don't be seen." Then he led the way inside.

Xxx

Neville didn't go far. The ship was still damaged and at risk of falling. Neville didn't know much about Muggle inventions but if the giant rotating blade had been targeted it was probably important and therefore would either be attacked again or fixed.

He wasn't wrong.

He had gone inside, gone down one set of stairs and ended up in the corridor beside the damage. Outside he could see two men-the metal one and the blue spandex hoodie one- attempting to fix the ship.

It didn't look like it was going well.

That wasn't what caught his attention, what he noticed where the heavily armed men in weird black suits advancing down the corridor.

As they approached Neville smiled slightly behind his mask and brushed a hand across his thigh, checking that his knife was still there before casting a stupefy at the approaching soldiers.

"You could at least make an effort not to look like the enemy." He muttered, dodging a bullet.

Xxx

Hermione winced as the woman was hit by the large green thing, which she vaguely recognised as the hulk. She muttered a quick incantation and sent a cushioning charm at the lady just before she hit the wall before continuing on to find someone else to fight.

As she ran past a group of scientists she thought she saw a flash of blonde hair and froze, nearly taking a bullet.

She stood for a moment before squeezing her eyes shut and jerked her head twice in an odd parody of a shake.

"The mission comes first." She murmured in a tone that suggested repetition and continued on.

Xxx

Ron had taken the first left that he had seen and had continued like that. It made more sense to him then running any way like the others had done, at least he would be able to find his way back.

He had-to his surprise ended up by what could only be the control room. It appeared well defended. There was one door and, from the bullets that would occasionally fly out and take out one of the approaching soldiers the door was also guarded.

He didn't attack. The set up was… suspicious, at best. You didn't go straight for the king. It was too obvious. Sending in the pawns while a knight took advantage of the diversion, that, made more sense.

Ron took advantage of his current state of invisible to sneak through the soldiers, stunning a couple of them as he went. A lurch went through the ship and Ron felt the dizzying sensation that he usually attributed to portkey or a quiditch dive.

Bugger, first move to the knight.

Check.

Xxx

Ginny and Harry had, quite accidently ended up together.

They weren't really sure where they were but it was a corridor. A long boring corridor with no-one to fight.

It was the sound that caught Ginny's attention and got her to stop. Without the noise she probably would have continued running straight into the man who had come blasting through the wall in a shower of rubble.

Correction.

It had been a nice empty boring corridor.

Harry stepped forward, wand in hand and sized up the man. He was easily recognisable as the crazy guy from earlier.

Harry nodded towards the hole and Ginny obeyed, slipping through it to find a man, sitting back against the wall with blood dripping from his chest.

"Oh shit."

Xxx

Neville scowled at the sound of gunshots. Blood dripped from his shoulder and trailed down his arm. They couldn't see him but one of them had got in a lucky hit. This had allowed a couple to slip past him and he could hear them fighting with Captain America.

Finishing the last of them of he ran back to the damaged area one was down but he got there just in time to see the Captain fall from the ship.

"Incarcerous." He barked, sending a rope out to wrap around the Captains arm. He pulled and the Captain's hand latched onto the ship pulling himself up.

For a moment the two of them stared at each other and Neville was acutely aware that his Disillusionment charm had broken. Then the Captain darted forward and pulled a red lever and the moment was broken. Neville turned away, not recasting his charm until he was out of sight. Hopefully the man would assume it was one of his comrades.

Xxx

The man sat up. He looked…mad, very mad, very, very mad.

He shifted slightly, pulling out a knife in favour of his wand. He'd seen the man move and he really doubted that he would get a hit with a spell. Not with the magic that the man could do. The knife however had the runes Tyr, Sowilo and Nauthiz, carved into it. That should hopefully let him get a hit.

The man stood and dusted off his outfit, only then seeming to notice Harry, standing in the corridor. Harry took a moment to curse the fact that the man could see through his spells. The man looked him up and down, from his boots right up to the mask on his face.

The mask was black, it had no eyeholes or indents and it was magic that allowed them to see and breathe. The only thing that made the masks different was the markings. Across each of them in white was painted the rune that they bore. It was this that the man's eyes were fixed to.

He smiled.

"What?" Harry snapped irritably, he wanted to check on Ginny, the room behind him was too quiet. "What is with the staring?"

The man laughed and the hairs on Harry's arms stood up. He really didn't like where this was going.

"You don't know? Well I suppose you wouldn't would you?" the man seemed to be getting way to much humour out of the situation and Harry (As usual) responded with anger.

"Know what?"

"Just what that mark you have means."

Harry froze; hand fluttering up to his face, his mask was still there. The man however was not, Harry spun and flung the knife just as he was seized and slammed into the wall. Hand at his throat. He struggled, biting and scratching, he even managed to get in a good punch, but the man was physically stronger and knew how to put him in a hold that he couldn't escape.

With his other hand he removed Harry's mask, brushing back his hair and tracing the mark. "Sowilo."

Startled Harry stopped fighting. "What?"

"Yes, I know what it means Sowilo, rune master." The man smiled again, a cunning smile that was more satisfied then happy, "My name is Loki, remember it."

With that he released Harry, letting him drop and vanished in a cloud of green, as he left Harry thought he heard the words "See you soon."

Harry scowled at the place that he'd been, rubbing his neck, "Bastard." Then he turned and ducked through the hole. Ginny was there standing near two men. One was large and sort of reminded Harry of Kingsley, the other was quite clearly dying.

"Muffilato." He whispered before going over to Ginny who looked up at him in shock.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," he waved at the man, "Is there anything you can do?"

She winced. "Not to heal him. If I had the Dittany…maybe but it would take too long and Hermione has it..." She trailed off staring at the man, Harry waited patiently for her to finish whatever thought had caught her attention and was not surprised when her eyes light up. "Isa, I could use Isa to put him into stasis!"

Xxx

Fury leaned back and watched as the medics surrounded Coulson.

There was nothing they could do.

None of them could see the single line drawn on his arm, even though it shone silver, standing out against the pale skin.

**Just a warning but most fights from Ron's perspective are going to involve chess so for those that don't know:**

**Pawn: can move one space forward and can only take diagonally. **

**castle:can move as many spaces as you wish horizontaly or vertically. **

**Bishop: can move as many spaces as you wish diagonally.**

**knight:can move five spaces but two (or three) must be verical and three (or two) must be horizontal. can jump other pieces.**

**Queen: can move as many spaces as you like in any direction.**

**king: can move one space in any direction**

**Check: tells someone that you can take their King. If they cannot move out of Check it becomes check mate.**

**Check mate: game over**

**please reveiw. **


	4. Chapter 4

Runes chapter four

**I'm sorry, I'm a terrible person! in my defence, first I had to finish my exams, then I had a couple of induction days, then I did nothing but sleep for a few days in celebration of my new found freedom, then my mum confiscated my computer. THE INJUSTICE! but I have returned to you with this increadibly short chapter. my apologies, though there is a reason You might find Hermione's rune a little weird but I'm sorry in spite of its other meanings Hermione HAD to be rationality.**

* * *

Rune: Raidho

Meaning: ride, journey

Associations: progress, riding, the right order or way to precede, rationality, growth.

Appearance: the letter R

* * *

The girl was smart.

The best in her year.

Everyone knew it, even those that refused to admit to it, and the girl herself knew it too.

The problem was that she wasn't quite smart enough. No. actually that wasn't the problem. The problem was that she had never needed to be smart enough.

The girl had always been alone, that was the problem. It was only after she had come to this new school, this school of magic that she actually had friends. The girl wasn't used to having people to help her with her theories. That was why she was in the library alone.

Everyone in the school knew her story. She had been attacked by the monster. If she hadn't been using a mirror she would have died. There was however one thing that most people forgot or perhaps they had never realised in the first place. There were two girls in the library that day. There was only one mirror.

The girl hadn't been using the mirror at the time the animal came across them, the Ravenclaw had.

The girl looked directly into the yellow eyes of the serpent.

When she woke up in the hospital wing the first thing she did was ask what happened. The second thing she did was go down to the feast. The third thing she did was go to bed. It was there that she noticed the change.

There was a mark on her arm, a mark in the shape of an R. the girl never told anyone. She made sure to wear long sleeved shirts and made sure that no-one would ever see. And, for reasons known only to herself, next year she took the class ancient runes.

Despite being so smart it was only much later, when Ehwaz appeared on her love's face and her family confessed to their own marks that the girl began to see a pattern. the one thing she never could figure out, even with her knowledge and her resources, was what having the marks actually meant.

* * *

Bruce woke slowly, as he always did after the other guy took control. He the room blurred for a moment before coming into focus. He looked around before jumping about a foot in the air and blushing bright red. Sitting directly in front of him in the rubble of the ruined roof sat a girl.

The girl was staring at him with eyes that were slightly unfocused and she didn't seem to notice his state of undress, something that Bruce was acutely aware of. He was looking around for something other than bricks to cover himself up with when a pair of trousers landed on his lap.

"I figured they wouldn't fit til you shrank down to regular size." A voice said.

Bruce spun round to see a man standing on the largest pile of rubble looking down at him.

"Thanks. What happened?" he asked pulling the trousers on.

"You came smashing in here all big and green and that girl followed."

"Was anyone hurt."

"No."

Bruce sighed in relief, "Lucky."

"Or just good aim. You were both awake when you fell."

Bruce had to frown at that opening his mouth to ask what the man meant about both when he was cut off.

"You an alien?"

"No."

"Then I hate to tell you this but you've got a problem."

"No he doesn't." a new voice chimed in. Bruce turned back to the girl, able to examine her properly now that he was fully dressed. She had long blonde hair and wore a flowery yellow dress that looked quite out of place in the dust and ruin of the factory. She also had what appeared to be a stick stuck behind one ear. She was digging in a bag that hung over one shoulder. With a quiet "Aha!" she pulled out two things. One he didn't see clearly before it was dropped the other was thrust into his hands.

He blinked at it. It was a necklace. A very weird necklace. Some sort of purple stone was dangling down from the centre on a plaited piece of silver. The necklace itself was made up of a second plaited piece of silver which had, for some reason, bright green feathers woven through it.

"Thank you?" it came out a lot more like a question then he had intended it to.

"It's for the Wrackspurts, you have too many. This will get rid of them." She smiled encouragingly and gestured for him to put it on. He did so, still feeling a bit befuddled by the whole thing.

"What are Wrackspurts?"

"They go inside your ears and make your head go fuzzy." This was said in a matter of fact way that suggested everyone knew of the existence of creepy ear creatures.

"…okay. What are you doing here?"

"I fell." She pointed up through the hole. "From the flying boat. I'm Luna, how are we getting to New York?"

"Sorry, WHAT?" Bruce yelped.

The girl looked at him. "I fell." It was said in the same matter of fact tone that she had been using for the whole conversation. "How are we getting to New York?" as she spoke she had picked up the second object that she had taken from her bag, something that Bruce could now identify as a mask.

"Why are we going to New York?" Judging by the conversation so far Bruce was almost afraid to ask.

Luna smiled at him and slipped the mask onto her face. "To fight the Heliopaths."

"…The Heliopaths." Bruce wondered if his face was as confused as he felt. Somehow he doubted it.

"Yes. These ones don't burn, it's very sad. They're still part of a secret army used to keep people under control though…maybe they're the Heliopath's cousins…aren't you going to come with me?"

Bruce sighed in defeat, the girl was pulling what looked like a black leather jacket out of the bag along with matching boots. He turned back to the man who was watching the whole thing with what looked like amusement.

"I don't suppose you have a car we could borrow."

Xxx

It was quiet in the room. The remaining Avengers were gathered around a large table, all of them were silent and subdued. Harry felt rather guilty watching it, especially as he knew for a fact that the person they were morning was not in fact dead.

The man at the front, Nick Fury, according to Hermione's 'research' that he was sure had been found using legal means and no violation of rights or computer codes at all (note the sarcasm) threw a pack of cards across the table and gave a speech for which Harry had to give him credit. He was almost as good with the guilt trips as Dumbledore.

At the end of it one of the other men-Tony Stark-stood up and stormed from the room. Steve Roberts stood up and, as he made to follow paused.

"Sir…" he began uncertainly, "one of them helped me."

"What?"

"One of the men invading the ship…well, they helped me, probably saved my life. I don't know why." With that parting shot he turned and left the room, Hermione darting after him.

Harry spun round to observe the group, his gaze fixing on Neville who was shifting nervously. He raised one eyebrow.

Neville shifted some more.

Casting a whispered muffilato Harry opened his mouth only to be beaten by Neville blurting out "Okay, fine, it was me. I got distracted during the fight and let my shields drop."

"Any particular reason they think you're one of them."

"Well in his defence they wore black masks. We wear black masks. They probably didn't think that there would be two different unknown groups wandering around this thing." Ginny pointed out.

At that moment Hermione snuck back into the room. "We have a location."

The group jumped to attention but it was Ron who asked the question, "where?"

"Stark towers, New York."

Harry grinned, "well then, guess we should suit up."

**hope you enjoyed despite the shortness. the reason behind the shortness was basically that if I started writting the fight scene I wouldn't stop and the chapter would be insanely long. I shall instead leave that for your next chapter, which-due to the afforementioned length may take a while. Don't you totally love the new reveiw system? that takes up unneceassary space and stares obnoxiously at you as you read? Because as you can tell I just love it. In spite of the monstrosity please reveiw my crappy short chapter. **


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

**the wedding was amazing my Mum is gorgeous! I have returned with a new chapter and the news that we have only one chapter to go before the end, after which I will probably be writting an Avengers/golden compass crossover so if anyone has any oppinions on this fic or on the next one please let me know. Noone has done a dark materials/avengers crossover, can you beleive it? **

**Disclaimer: I will own these characters when I created a time machine go back in time and publish/produce the stories before their original owners thus creating a time paradox however until that time nothing is owned by me apart from some wood, nails and some very poorly thought out designs for a police box.**

Rune: Dagaz

Meaning: day, dawn.

Associations: breakthrough, awakening awareness, prosperity, and the power of self-change.

Appearance: tilted hourglass (horizontal)

* * *

She should have died.

This is not an exaggeration or a comment on how lucky she was to have survived.

She shouldn't have survived.

She should have died.

She was the youngest in her family and, in some ways the most naive. She had always been protected, you see, and while the other members of her family had some ideas of pain, suffering and loss as the youngest she had been shielded. As the youngest she had either been born too late to experience them or, as the youngest had been shielded from them.

All her other family had either lived through or been born into war, even the second youngest. She had been born into peace. A tentative peace, of course, still a time of grief and pain but still a time that allowed children to be children.

Her older siblings had been born to a time of fear and suspicion and while some of them did not remember it this still shaped them in the future. Shaped them in a way that the youngest had not been shaped.

The oldest were a lot more suspicious then the youngest had ever been.

Had it been one of her older brothers who found the diary that wrote back nothing would have come of it. Their Father or a teacher would have been told. The diary would have been disposed of.

It was however the youngest that found it.

The youngest who kept it.

She poured her words, her thoughts, he feelings into the book, she let down her guard enough for the entity within the diary to begin pouring something back into her.

The diary used her life to create life of its own and later, much later when the diary created a body for that life to fuel the diary used her life to create a human life of its own.

This created a stream. A stream of life and energy pouring out of the girl, channelled through the diary and settled in the body.

The diary however was destroyed. The body died. The connection however didn't. The girl's life was still streaming out of the girl. Without a focus it poured into the surrounding area, with nothing to halt its path or control its movement.

Then, something happened. The last wisps of life left the girl and in its place came a new energy. While, to one who could see such things, the life energy would have looked like wisps and tendrils of gold and silver this new energy was dark and indescribable. The closest that could be said about it was that it was a wave and it was beautiful. It was dark but as it seemed to reflect light that wasn't there showing colours within the shadow where the imaginary light hit it. Here and there red could be seen, while in other places midnight blue and light green stood out.

It was also sentient.

It moved round the room with purpose. Large amounts of it surrounded the diary while more of it gathered in the place that the body had stood. Other parts stretched around the room until ever speck of gold and silver had been captured and was cradled gently in the embrace of the shadow.

The shadow returned to the girl's body, precious cargo carried with it.

The girl opened her eyes. She didn't find it for a while. How often do you look at the bottom of your feet? And it was on the centre of the heel, not somewhere you might catch a glimpse of by chance.

Even after she did find it she never once said. It was silly, she told herself, to get the family worked up about something so insignificant. In truth she was afraid. She was afraid that the diary, that the man, had marked her somehow, that this symbol was a sign of his taint.

It was only later; when Raidho's bearer figured out what was happening, figured out the connection between the marks that the girl realised it had nothing to do with that man. After all nothing so steeped in darkness wold leave a mark that pertained to the light.

The girl should have died.

She, like the rest of the masters, survived.

* * *

Harry grinned, "Well then, I guess we should suit up."

It took approximately 2.45 seconds for his words to sink in before the group was snorting with laughter.

Ginny in particular looked at him as if he were insane, "Suit up? Since when do you start talking like that?"

Harry shrugged, "Meh, I've been on a ship surrounded by Americans for a good few hours. It seemed like something they would say."

"Seriously mate," Ron shook his head in mock disbelief. "Don't go native."

"Yeah, it doesn't really sound right when you say it." As he spoke Neville was already pulling his mask back onto his face and digging around in his bag for his uniform.

"Like Snape on a good hair day." Ron shuddered, his eyes wide with horror.

"Now big, blonde and muscled, he could have pulled it off; I guess you just lack the authority."

"Thor?" Hermione stared at Ginny as if she had gone insane.

The redhead snorted, "I was thinking more Mr America the one with the really tight spandex." She winked at Hermione as she said the word tight and gave a flirty grin.

Over near Harry, Ron whimpered miserably, "I'm not hearing this about my little sister. I'm not hearing this about my little sister. I'm not hearing this…"

It was Harry who interrupted his musings with a muttered "Let's move out."

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked with obvious concern, "Don't you feel the need to remind us that we don't need to come with you?"

Ron, with an expression worthy of the twins took up her cause, "Yeah, Harry, after all, isn't it your fight?"

"There's no need for us to get involved after all."

"You'd never forgive yourself if anything happened to us."

"We really should stay at home where it's safe."

"Sometimes I really hate you two."

"We know Harry." This was said in unison and this time it was Ginny who shuddered.

"One set of twins is bad enough; we don't need you two to fill in during their absence."

Nobody saw them as they made their way through the ship; they had spells to ensure that. If they had been seen, though they would have been an impressive sight. The clothes they wore were entirely black and made of dragon hide. The only colour that they had was their rune, painted across the mask in white. The outfit was designed so that it didn't impair movement and so that various weapons could be concealed within it.

Hermione preferred to use swords and so had two strapped round her waist. Ron preferred magic or hand to hand while Neville was the groups poison specialist, this was particularly useful to Luna whose favourite weapon was (Bizarrely) a blow dart. She had several brightly coloured feathered darts woven into bracelets around each wrist-she also had pockets filled with anti-venom for the inevitable times when she cut herself. Harry, as the group leader, was required to be something of a Jack of all trades, not specialising in anything but with a broad range of abilities that he could perform decently.

Ginny was the group's healer, she had of course been trained in combat, all of them had been however healing was to be her speciality. This was all going very well until some poor sod introduced her to grenades. It became very quickly apparent that Ginny…liked explosions…a lot. If you gave her something that was flammable her personality would turn slightly…insane. Nobody knew how she managed to sneak a bazooka into Hogwarts during Voldemort's reign, nobody wanted to know. They had however learned a very important lesson from that moment. Never take Ginny's stuff.

Xxx

New York was, quite frankly chaos.

It was hard for Ron to figure out what they needed to do. Out of all of them Harry made the plans, Ron analysed the situation and figured out what was going on.

What was currently going on was chaos. A portal had opened in the sky, pawns were rushing through it. Their own pieces were scattered.

Cops-little use…pawns.

Black widow, Hawk eye-limited mobility, limited firepower…knights.

Thor-high mobility, high power…bishop.

Iron man-best mobility, high power, high intelligence…Queen.

Captain America-limited mobility, high power, team leader…King.

"Well?"

Ron glanced over at Harry's expectant face. "This is the first wave, the space equivalent of foot soldiers…there's probably a more powerful wave coming… they would have sent their least powerful troops first…Loki doesn't matter anymore whatever keeping that portal open does. Closing the portal will give us the advantage."

Neville sucked in a shocked breath watching the aliens swarm through the portal. "These are the weakest?"

Ron shrugged, "Speculation." He tilted his head to one side as one of the aliens crashed into a building "They find it hard to turn."

"Speculation…big word." Hermione teased.

Ron pulled a face, despite the fact that she wouldn't be able to see it. He opened his mouth to snap back but was cut off.

Harry breathed out sharply through his teeth, "Neville, Ginny protect the civilians, Hermione, Luna…" there was an awkward pause as he remembered that she was no longer with them before he set his jaw and continued as if he hadn't made the slip. "Find out whatever opened that portal and figure out a way to reverse it. Ron, blue spandex seems to be in charge, keep him alive, we can't do this alone. Give him cover from the air. Do try not to be seen. "

The group started to move, Hermione jumping of her broom and lading in a crouch as a shot flew over where her head would have been. She twisted and used the motion to unsheathe her sword, she swung with her movement and slashed across the alien's chest, as it staggered backwards she lunged forward and stabbed it through the alien's chest.

In the air Ron was soaring towards the centre of the fight, dodging the aliens. They could see flashes of red as he attacked.

Xxx

Neville apparated to the outskirts of the town and sighed, trust him to get the complicated job. He crouched for a moment before pulling out a brush and a pot of black ink. He scrawled three runes onto the ground, Thurisaz (resistance/defence), Eihwaz (endurance/stability), Algiz (shield/defence/protection) each were drawn as the point of a triangle. He then drew a circle within the runes and, within that circle, drew a further two runes, Mannaz (humanity) he paused for a moment, before coming to a decision and drawing Dagaz (breakthrough). He apparated a further three times, sketching the same rune sequence at each location-North, East, South, West.

Neville spun on the spot, only seeing the alien lunge partway through his spin. There was a crack as he moved, appearing in the centre of the city, he staggered stars exploding behind his eyes as he felt the warmth of blood seeping into his trousers. He had avoided the alien but it had startled him, he hadn't been focusing correctly and had splinched himself.

He shook his head to clear it before running a finger along his thigh, it came away bloody. Neville drew one final rune. In a way it was convenient that he had hurt himself, it saved having to cut himself. The rune was Uruz (power).

The second he finished the rune it started to glow, although he couldn't see it the others he had drawn also glowed. Invisible to the muggles a light violet shield shimmered into existence.

The three runes he had drawn created the shield, the two he had drawn within the triangle allowed humans to pass through it.

The ink he had used had contained a small amount of his blood which connected them all to Uruz, the power rune, the use of blood should tune the runes onto him, meaning only he should be able to break them.

He cast a mild healing spell on the wound and cracked his neck, moving out to begin the civilian evacuations.

Xxx

Ginny was one the only member of the group who had not immediately followed Harry's orders, she hung back after the others had gone and laid a hand against Harry's arm.

"And what exactly will you be doing?" She asked softly.

"I'm going after Loki." His voice was firm, familiar, the way that it had been when he had gone after Sirius and the way it had been on the worst day of her life when they stood in the great hall and he offered Voldemort a choice. She let her hand fall back to her side.

"Try not to die." She told him and then she was gone, whirling away down the street.

Harry adjusted his mask, checked his glamours and then kicked off, souring into the sky.

In the middle of the city a pair of green eyes, so similar to Harry's own looked up and watched him go.

Xxx

In the air Ron looked up to see a massive flying caterpillar type thing come flying through the portal, he grimaced behind his mask, pulling to the side and hovering for a moment before turning and diving for the ground as the thing made its way all the way through the portal. As he flew a chunk of rubble hit his shoulder, caused by the thing crashing through a building. Ron hit the ground hard, rolling a few feet before being brought to a stop by a lamppost. He coughed and pulled himself to his feet, swaying slightly.

"Wonderful. Here come the knights."

Xxx

Steve stared in shock; the aliens had been one thing but this…

He put a hand to his communicator asking in disbelief "Tony are you seeing this?"

"Seeing it. Still working on believing." Steve felt slightly better that even the always flippant billionaire hadn't been quite able to hide his own disbelief. As he stared a figure came into his line of sight, it was falling fast and hit the ground hard. He hissed in sympathy, moving forward to lend a hand.

His lack of attention could be attributed to the shock that he had just had but he failed to notice the Chitari attacking him from behind. The person who had fallen didn't. A red light shot out of the person's hand, hitting the Chitari full in the face. As the soldier stared the figure raised its head, revealing a mask identical to that of the one who had saved him earlier. Steve nodded his head in thanks but there were lives to save and enemies to fight and, for now, thoughts of the stranger were firmly pushed to one side.

Xxx

They had all ended up in the same place. Hermione wasn't entirely sure why that was or how it had happened but it had. They wizards and the Avengers had all assembled directly under the portal, well wizards and Avengers minus Ironman and Harry. She glanced over at Ginny and Neville who were on the other side of the road. Where the buildings had been destroyed a group of people had been trapped, Neville was clearing the rubble and watching Ginny's back as she healed the injured.

Ron was further down the street; he appeared to have come of his broom and was holding off three of the aliens. She shot a cutting curse at ones back and watched it drop before turning her attention back to her own fight. She had been trying to get into Stark tower since the beginning of the fight but was having little luck. It didn't help that the portal was right above it and that she was working from the ground. She had lost one of her swords several minutes ago and so had replaced it with her wand, using a mixture of magic and blade, and she still wasn't making much ground.

She fell back slightly, making use of a lull in the fighting. Over the noise of screams and panic and war she was able to make out a new sound, a sound that seemed almost foreign in the midst of battle, the sound of an engine. She spun round, the scientist, Bruce was approaching on a bike and on the back of it, with her arms wrapped around his waist was…was…

"Luna."

Xxx

Harry had very swiftly come to the conclusion that, whatever these things were, he did not like them. He was flying closer to the ground then was usually safe trying to find Loki and so far he hadn't been having much luck. He wiped blood off his mask and wheeled to face another alien. He didn't know what was going on but the glamours were acting up as well, it seemed like sometimes he was visible and sometimes he wasn't. As near as he could figure the closer he was to the portal the more he could be seen. It was bloody annoying.

Harry hissed and jerked his head violently to the side as the Aliens weapon let of a stream of electricity that only narrowly missed. He darted round behind fired a stupefy, watching as the alien crumpled before moving on.

He froze and then darted forward, his broom rocketing forwards with only the lightest of touches.

As the alien had fallen he had seen a flash of green just rounding a corner.

It was empty and a dead end.

Harry frowned, dismounting he stood in the alleyway, wand out. Every hair on his arms and neck stood straight upright as he looked around for somewhere that Loki might have gone.

He was nearby.

Xxx

In the mouth of the alley, blocking the only exit, Loki watched as the boy tensed and stated to cautiously look around.

From his position behind the boy he smiled.

**Wooh, long chapter, creepy ending what more could you want? aside from swift updates and better quality but that just ain't going to happen. by the way Ron was not doing wandless magic Steve just didn't see the wand and the mask isn't identical to Neville's but he was ata a distance and it was a black mask with white markings, it was also covered in blood and dust etc. **

**it's been a while since I watched the Avengers so this might not be too accurate for which I appologise. On the other hand Luna is back!**

**It is the tesseract/sceptre that is making them appear. It doesn't affect what they do with runes or curses but it is making enchantments weaker so something that is instatanious magic e.g. cutting curse will not be affected. something that has to hold for a long time e.g. glamour or stupify will wear off sooner then they should. this is because the Tesseract/sceptre is drawing on a lot of energy so I figured that sooner or later it would start drawing on magic. Rune magic isn't affected because it is a different more powerful type of magic(Which will be fully explained next chapter) and Loki isn't affected because he's currently the one weilding the sceptre and it wouldn't be a very good weapon if it kept intrfering with its owners abilities. **

**so yeah, pretty shit reasoning I know but at least I put reasoning in! It's not just some unexplained miracle that keeps happeneing so that the plot works right.**

**Poor Steve, that's twice now that he's been saved and has been the only one to see them. **

**please reveiw,are you happy with my way of writting fight scenes or should there be more action?**


	6. Chapter 6

Runes

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Etcetera, etcetera. Authors note at the bottom. **

Chapter six

* * *

Rune: Ehwaz

Meaning: horse

Associations: balance, stability, harmony, teamwork, trust, loyalty.

Appearance: the letter M

* * *

Man-child

His life was in juxtaposition

Too man to be a child, too child to be a man.

The man-child was running.

Running as though he would never be able to stop.

Glass shattered to dust and diamonds and they rained down on him as he fled. Ahead of him the silver shone green as the sickly light of the killing curse shot past him, missing by a half inch and shattering yet another row of shining glass. He followed the masters of Ansuz and Dagaz into a new room, one free of glass but filled with steadily floating and twirling planets and stars.

They are followed.

Four men in robes of midnight and masks of death. One grabs for Dagaz's master and she screams, the noise covering the sickening sound of her ankle snapping in two. The man-child turns at his sister's scream but the master of Ansuz is already there, forcing the robed figure back with shards of ice as her curse explodes a planet into his face.

They turn to run again but the midnight-robed-death-masked man has taken advantage of their distraction and the man-child turns into his wand. He is hit with a glowing red light _reducto _point blank to the face.

It should have been fatal.

Should have torn skin and crushed bone.

It does not.

Carved into his face where the rune should have impacted is a mark, it is shaped similarly to the letter M and, despite its raw, painful appearance, it does not bleed. The robed man is flung backwards and falls senseless to the floor with the force of Dagaz's master's spell, Ansuz's master pulls the man-child up from where he has fallen, attempting to pull him towards the exit at the same time as supporting his sister.

Ehwaz's master knows no more.

He wakes in a room filled with beds, a blank spot in his mind and pain in his body. Surrounding him lay the rest of the masters, whether consigned to a bed as he appears to be or curled up on empty beds, apparently released from the hospital wing with wounds which are either mended or not serious. Ansuz's master is the first to notice his return to consciousness and she places the magazine, which she had been reading upside down and back to front down on a nearby table upon seeing all of the masters awake and sits up straight. She levels unusually aware blue eyes around the room, meeting everyone's gaze and pulls the collar of her shirt down and to the side, revealing her mark. Her voice is serious when she speaks:

"We need to talk."

As though waiting for her words, as one, the runes shimmer into life, each warming up and glowing a faint red.

Ehwaz's master felt fully justified in letting out a high pitched yelp of shock.

Sowilo's master felt more so.

* * *

"Luna"

Ginny's shriek shattered whatever silence that was left as she threw herself towards her friend. Bruce blinked twice and moved out of the way seemingly overwhelmed by the figure hurtling towards him. Ginny ignored him fully intent on reaching the friend whom she had believed dead. Her and Hermione's shouts had alerted Ron and Neville to her appearance and they too began to make their way over to where Ginny had pulled Luna off the bike and wrapped her arms around her.

The click of a gun stopped them.

"Woah! Woah!" Ron backed up slightly, hands raised in surrender staring at the gun that was aimed directly at his head. Black widow narrowed her eyes slightly and there was the small click of a safety being removed, "Don't shoot, we're friendly"

Her only response was to raise one eyebrow, as though saying, prove it. The stand-off was broken by Captain America who moved over, saying "Stand down, he's telling the truth, he's saved my life twice now."

"Ah" Ron kept his eyes on the gun even though it was no longer pointed in his direction, he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, "I can see where you got it wrong, it's the masks isn't it." He jerked one thumb in Neville's direction. "He was the one who saved you on the ship."

"Why did you help me?"

Ron opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by Hawkeye's approach,

"So, are we trusting these guys or not, 'cos I don't know if you've noticed but we've got a bit of a situation here."

"We just want to help." Hermione came to stand by Ron's side, "We'll do the Question and answer thing later okay? I don't really think that we have time right now. But we really do just want to help."

Bruce abandoned his bike and moved over to join the group with a casualness which was unsuited to the situation. "Nice place you've got here." He quipped, glancing around at the destruction just as a crackle of static came in over the earpieces, Stark's voice joining the conversation, "Is Banner there yet?"

"Just showed up."

"Good. Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."

"What does he mean by that?" Ginny's question was answered a moment later when iron man came speeding towards them, closely followed by one of the flying monsters.

"I don't see how that's a party." Natasha murmured.

"I do!" Luan giggled as Banner became the Hulk, punching the monster before it could reach them. Luna smiled in satisfaction when she saw that the necklace she had given him had survived the change and was glowing faintly. The monsters momentum carried it forward, causing it to rise into the air and loom above them ominously.

Ron swore as it started to topple forwards and snapped "_protégé_" at the same time as Hermione, their shield shimmering into existence just as Stark fired a missile forcing it back the other way, the shield protected them from the debris caused by the explosion.

"Oh, that's not good."

They all turned at Luna's encouraging words, following her gaze upwards to where dozens more aliens were pouring through the portal.

"What's the plan Cap?"

Steve glanced over at Tony's question before returning his gaze to the sky, "Our main priority needs to be containment…"

He was cut off by Neville, "actually, the aliens won't be able to get out of the city, there's a shield around it."  
"What about civilians."

"The way the shield is designed is to prevent non-human entities from getting through, humans should have no problems."

Steve's relief at the answer was overshadowed by Stark spinning round to stare at Neville in shock, seemingly forgetting the dangers of their situation. "How did you do that? What tech did you use?"

Neville grimaced slightly under the weight of Stark's scrutiny before offering up a weak "I'll tell you later" before Rodgers took over again.

"In that case we need to keep their numbers down so we don't get mobbed. Barton, I need you on the rooftops, look for patterns and weaknesses, Stark, run a perimeter anything gets past us you turn it back or you turn it to ash. Thor, I need you to bottleneck the portal, do what you can to slow them down." He glanced over at Natasha, "you're with me, we stay on the ground, try and keep the fighting here and Hulk. Smash!" as the group separated he turned towards the newcomers, "What's your skill set?"

Ginny laughed, raising one eyebrow behind her mask, "yeah, I don't think so pretty boy," she steamrolled over Ron's splutters of "pretty boy!?" and continued. "We're working with you, not under you. We already have our order." She folded her arms and glared at Rodgers as though daring him to contradict her.

Luna, as usual, ignored the tension, pointing out, "I don't"

Hermione sighed, "You're with me, I'll brief you on the way. Let's go."

Almost as one the group split up, each darting in different directions apart from one who remained behind, he clapped Steve on the shoulder, "Sorry about that, she's not really big on authority. I'm probably gonna stick around here if that's okay."

"Fine." Rodgers replied, as he hit one of the aliens across the face with his shield.

Ron barked out the word "incindio!" at an approaching group, forcing them to scatter in order to avoid the fire which had exploded into their midst. Slipping his wand upwards into its holster he moved in, punching one across the face, kicking out and slamming his foot into another's knee, feeling it give under his weight, forcing the alien to the floor. He drops to the floor as one manages to fire its gun, before grabbing hold of its weapon and attempting to pull it out of the aliens grasp, managing to divert its next shot so that it hit one of the aliens own kind. Killing it instantly, Ron managed to tug the gun away from the alien, spun it round to face the alien, as he did so the gun fired, shooting its original owner dead on. Ron paused for a moment, looking between the two dead aliens and then at the gun in his hands, he grinned.

"Nice!"

Xxx

Hermione whimpered miserably, knuckles white with the force with which she was holding onto the back of Luna's dress, keeping up a constant litany of "I don't like this, I really, really don't like this." She screamed as the Thestral that Luna had somehow managed to persuade her to ride jolted sharply and landed with a thump. Hermione sat rigidly on its back refusing to let go.

"It's okay, you can open your eyes now. We're here."

At Luna's words Hermione cracked one eye open, upon seeing that they were safe on the roof of Starks building, she gratefully slid off onto steady ground before heading over to a large metal contraption which seemed to be the source of the portal. She stopped at the edge of the energy field that protected it, frowning in thought before going through a complicated movement with her wand and casting a spell. The sunshine yellow spell hit the shield and remained visible for a moment before fizzling and fading out of existence, Hermione's frown, deepened and she cast the spell again, receiving the same results.

"What's wrong?" Luna asked from where she stood, absently brushing the wrinkles that Hermione had made out of her dress.

Hermione spared her a glance before returning her attention to the shield, "That spell was a diagnostic charm. It was supposed to show weaknesses in the shield but the shield seems to have some way of negating its affects."

Luna tilted her head to one side, contemplating the issue, before moving a few steps backwards. A short incantation later and silver mist poured from her wand, filling some invisible mould and forming a translucent hare. A flick of her wand and it moved towards the shield. As it did so tendrils of silver began to drift away from the hare, being sucked into and becoming a part of the shield. Eventually it too faded to nothing, just as Hermione's spells had done.

"Oh wow!" Hermione's tone was almost reverent, "It isn't just an energy source it also leeches the energy from its surroundings, converting it into something it can use. It is capable of using any attack against it as a defence, in trying to destroy it you only make it stronger. This is incredible. Something with this ability should be capable of sustaining itself indefinitely."

Luna's pointed cough broke her out of her thoughts and she cleared her throat awkwardly, "Which would obviously in this circumstance be a very bad thing…sorry, I got a bit carried away."

"Can you shut it down?" this came from Black widow who joined them on the roof, dropping down from an alien craft which she had commandeered.

"I can."

All three women spun at this new addition, automatically sliding into defensive positions apart from Luna who acted as though she had been expecting just that to occur. The voice came from the corner of the roof, the scientist; Selvig was slowly sitting up, blood dripping from a gash in his forehead.

"What d'you mean?" Natasha snapped, not dropping her defensive stance.

"The Tesseract can't fight-you can't defend against yourself."

"The sceptre," Luna was unusually grave as she spoke, "We need the sceptre. Which means we need…"

"Loki." Hermione growled, drawing her wand.

Xxx

The alleyway in front of him was empty, brick wall and pavement the only things he could see, the back of Harry's neck prickled uncomfortably and he dropped his broom, pulling out his knife. The sharp whistle of air was the only warning he was given and he spun around, only just managing to get his knife up in time to block the sceptre's swing which would have come down on his head, as it was the force of the blow pushed him down onto one knee, his arms above his head, trembling slightly as Harry tried to keep them steady. He rolled backwards, out from under the sceptre sending it crashing to the floor and throwing Loki off balance. Harry too advantage of his distraction, slashing with the knife as he stomped on Loki's hand, forcing him to drop the sceptre. Harry kicked out, sending the sceptre clattering across the pavement and away from Loki.

Loki's face darkened dangerously and, almost too fast to see he moved.

Harry felt a hand on his chest before he was thrown backwards, losing his grip on his knife and hitting the wall hard enough to knock the air out of him. He coughed weakly, trying to right himself but before he could do so a hand wrapped around his throat, with just enough pressure to be restricting without being painful, he squirmed desperately, trying to escape the grip but it merely tightened slightly in warning, causing Harry to go limp in Loki's grasp. His mask was removed and dropped on top of his knife and Green eyes were revealed, glaring up into Loki's.

Loki smiled down at him, "Your abilities are commendable, there is just one issue. I am a _God, _thousands of years old, with thousands of years of experience, did you really think that I could be defeated by a _child_?"

Harry's response was to glare harder, "What is your obsession with pinning me to walls?"

Loki's grin widened, "I'm hurt, it seems that your combat isn't the only thing you need to work on, your manners are deplorable, I did give you my name after all, I was rather hopping you would use it."

Harry huffed in annoyance, letting his head fall back until it was resting against the wall, staring straight up at the sky. "Okay. I'll bite. What's you're obsession with pinning me to walls, Loki?"

Loki laughed, "Believe me, you aren't what I'm obsessed with," he leaned closer, whispering into Harry's ear, "That mark of yours though, that I find very interesting."

Harry stiffened, "You know what it is?"

"You don't?" Loki laughed again, "Those marks, those runes, are very well known on Asguard. It is said that once, many eons ago there lived a family, a family of great warriors and healers and scholars, a family from which all magic originated." Loki's voice had taken on the lilting tone of a story teller, "It is said that each member of the family had a rune which in some way represented them, the stories differ at this point, no-one is sure where the marks came from or what they mean, just that each member of the family had one. These marks became what we now know as the runic alphabet, it is said that the reason that runes can be used within magic is because in using a rune you are not using you own power but instead invoking an echo of that person's power."

"What does that mean for me though?"

Loki looked irritated at the interruption, pushing Harry slightly further back into the wall before continuing. "There are twenty four runes, far too many for a single family living in one place. Therefore the story tells us that the family was split into three branches, each referred to as an Aett, these were known as Freyr, Hagal and Tyr. Each one was ruled but two people, one male, one female. The strongest of each family. The funny thing about those six though is that they have a peculiar habit of showing up throughout history, branded onto people's skin. Only ever one at a time and always at times when such a thing is needed. Nobody has ever been able to answer the question of why the runes appear, however what we do know is that the ones who bare the runes are powerful, astronomically so."

"Why does it matter to you so much? You don't have one." Any escape attempt had been forgotten in light of this new information that Loki was giving.

"I don't have one?" Loki grinned, showing all his teeth "But I will!"

Harry froze at Loki's sudden change in mood, frantically trying to escape as he saw that the sceptre was, impossibly, back in Loki's hand.

And the world faded to blue.

Xxx

Harry was drowning, sinking into a cool blue sea, the colour was all he could see, all he could feel.

And then the whispers started.

They were quiet and inviting, drawing him in. soft enough that it was impossible to make out the words but promising that if you followed them, came just a little closer they would give you all the answers you ever wanted.

Something about them was familiar, it niggled in the back of Harry's mind, a voice screaming the something was wrong but it was buried-ignored-forgotten under the layers of calm that Harry felt.

Then a voice cut through the whispers, an order, **Destroy Them All.**

Harry's eyes blinked open, looking at a world that was distorted as though seen from under water, the whispers still lingering inside his ears. He stooped, picking up his knife and turned to leave the alley and fulfil his orders.

Something stopped him, an animal. It appeared before him made out of mist and starlight. He tried to ignore it, to carry out his orders but something about it kept drawing his attention.

It was the only thing in the world that wasn't blue.

That was important.

_Why was it important?_

The shape, that was important too.

_What was it?_

An otter.

A silver otter.

_Why was that important?_

Hermione.

The world snapped back into focus and, as the echoes died, sound came rushing back.

"-close the portal, do you understand? We need the sceptre to close the portal." Message delivered the otter swam off, twisting through the air, presumable to find another member of the group to pass the message on to.

A heartbeat passed, Harry twirled round.

"Expelliarmus!"

Not expecting it Loki crashed backwards into the very wall he had pinned Harry too, the sceptre flying away from him, with the instincts born of being the youngest seeker in a century Harry caught it, scooping up his broom and taking to the sky.

Loki took a moment to pick himself up and dust off his clothes before commandeering an alien's hovercraft and following.

Xxx

Hermione was pacing, wringing her hands and muttering to herself under her breath.

"Are you alright?"

"Do I look alright?" Hermione snapped out, spinning round to glare at the speaker.

Natasha shrugged, unconcerned, "I just don't think that you panicking is really going to help in this situation."

"I know that." Hermione hissed out from between clenched teeth. "I hate waiting. I hate not being able to do anything."

"Yes." Luna agreed dreamily, "Things do always seem to come down to him in the end, don't they?"

"What?"

Instead of answering Luna tilted her head to the left, indicating to where they could clearly see Harry flying towards them, sceptre in one hand, Loki following behind him.

Xxx

Harry cursed under his breath as he was forced to roll to avoid the shot that Loki fired at him, nearly dropping the sceptre in the process. This close to it he could feel it attempting to retake control of his mind and was forced to grit his teeth, forcibly shoving the whispers from his mind and ears.

He glanced backwards at Loki just in time to see him catch an arrow in his left hand. Loki's victory lasted for only a moment before the arrow exploded, sending Loki skidding across Stark's balcony.

Harry pulled upwards, reaching the roof and tossing the sceptre to Natasha who caught it one handed, before banking sharply and hovering in the air to see whether Loki had recovered. He had. Harry leaned forward into a dive but someone else got there first. The Hulk landed in front of Loki with a crash that shook the whole floor.

Harry watched the following beat down with a slight wince, he didn't like the guy but that looked really painful. When it was over and the Hulk's condescending "Puny God." Reached his ears he turned, diving back into the fight.

Xxx

"Are we closing the portal then?" Hermione asked, after a moment in which Natasha didn't move.

"No."

"Why not?" Hermione demanded, crossing her arms.

In answer Natasha tapped her earpiece, "The Captain called, we've got a nuke incoming. Stark is going to send it up." She waved the sceptre vaguely towards the portal.

Hermione froze. "Are you insane?" her voice, as it often did when angry, had turned shrill, "That portal opens into deep space, he'll have fourteen seconds before oxygen deprivation kicks in and his body begins to deteriorate, not to mention the risk of hypothermia and exposure to radiation."

Natasha didn't look at Hermione as she replied her voice steady and hard, "That's his call."

Xxx

The explosion was large enough that it could be clearly seen through the portal and Ron whistled slightly as he stared up at the mushroom of flame and smoke that made up the remains of what had once been the mother ship. "Ginny will be happy." He murmured under his breath, shuddering slightly at the thought of his sister's obsession with explosions.

"What?"

He started slightly in surprise, having forgotten about the Captain's presence nearby. "Nothing important." He was about to turn to face the Captain when he was distracted by the aliens they had been fighting all collapsing at once. He blinked in surprise before prodding one with his foot, it didn't react.

"Huh," he mused, kicking it again, "That's convenient."

Ron was just patting himself on the back for a job well done when he heard something which made him turn around in shock, "What do you mean close it?" he demanded, storming over to the Captain, "Starks still up there!"

Rodgers flinched in shame and refused to look at him. Ron gave him one last look of disgust before turning away, pointing his wand straight up and snapping out the words "Accio Stark!"

Mere seconds before the portal closed Stark's body could be seen tumbling through it, thankfully safe on the other side before it finally shut. Ron shot the Captain a smug look which quickly changed to one of concern at Thor's worried "He's not slowing down"

Before Thor, who was readying his hammer, or Ron, who was frantically trying to remember whether a cushioning or a feather-light charm would do more good could react a blur of green shot past them as the Hulk appeared, grabbing onto Stark and using a building to slow his fall.

"Damn it." Ron's heads jerked round at Ginny's sudden arrival as she ran past him to where Stark's body was lying prone on the ground. Before she could reach it the Hulk roared making Tony jolt awake with a panicked "Please tell me nobody kissed me!"

Ginny grinned in relief, "Nobody kissed you."

"Good. Did we win?"

"Yes." Rodgers confirmation was breathy and hard to hear, "We won."

Stark groaned, "You know what, let's not come in tomorrow…let's take a day. Hey! You ever tried Shwarma? There's a Shwarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I wanna try it."

Ron shrugged non-committedly, "I could eat."

"You could always eat."

"Hey!"

Thor's serious "We're not finished yet." Broke up the brewing sibling argument

Ron tried to scratch his nose but hit he mask instead, "Yeah." He drew the word out into several syllables, "I suppose you'll be wanting that explanation now then?"

The question was rhetorical but Rodgers answered it anyway with a short "Yes." Making both Ron and Ginny wince behind their masks.

Tony looked disheartened for a moment with a soft "oh." before brightening up again, "And then Shwarma after."

**Okay, yeah...I'm sorry? School is evil. I decided to split chapter six into two just so that I had something to give you so expect the second half sometime within the next two weeks. Also I will be doing a sequal to this fic, so even though it ends next chapter there will still be more to come. **

**I was rewatching the Avengers in order to write this and as I watched the Mother-ship explode into flames it occured to me: how can there be fire in space, there is no oxygen. If anyone can answer this question please do so. **

**Once again, I am really sorry for leaving you hanging for so long. **


End file.
